INDEX:
1. words for describing someone who is tall
2. how tall someone is
3. to be much taller than someone
RELATED WORDS
opposite
↑ SHORT
tall building, tree, mountain etc : ↑ HIGH (2)
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1. words for describing someone who is tall
▷ tall /tɔːl/ [adjective]
▪ Martin was tall and thin, with curly blond hair.
▪ At the age of fifteen he was already six foot three and the tallest boy in the school.
▪ The photographer asked the taller people to stand at the back of the group.
▪ Who is that tall bloke standing next to Diane?
grow tall/taller
▪ Sebastian was now fifteen, and had grown tall and strong.
▷ lanky /ˈlæŋki/ [adjective]
a man who is lanky is tall and thin, and has very long legs :
▪ We were met by a tall, lanky youth called Yusef.
▪ a lanky sixteen-year-old boy
▷ gangling/gangly /ˈgæŋglɪŋ, ˈgæŋgli/ [adjective usually before noun]
use this about a young person who is tall and thin with very long legs and arms, and moves in an awkward way :
▪ Janet introduced me to her son, a shy, gangling teenager.
▪ a tall, gangly youth
▷ leggy /ˈlegi/ [adjective]
a woman who is leggy is tall and attractive with long legs :
▪ Robert arrived at the party with a leggy brunette.
▪ a tall, leggy blonde
▷ a giant /ə ˈdʒaɪənt/ [singular noun]
use this about a man who is very tall, especially when you are surprised at how tall he is :
▪ Bigger even than his father, who was a tall man, James was a giant.
a giant of a man
▪ The biggest of the three brothers was a sad-faced giant of a man.
2. how tall someone is
▷ how tall /ˌhaʊ ˈtɔːl/ [adjective phrase]
use this to ask or talk about someone’s height :
▪ How tall are you?
▪ I hadn’t seen her for five years and I was amazed at how tall she was.
▷ 6 ft tall/2 m tall etc /ˌsɪks fʊt ˈtɔːl/ [adjective phrase]
use this to say exactly how tall someone is :
▪ John is 1.78 metres tall and weighs 95 kilos.
▪ She was accompanied by her six foot tall boyfriend.
▷ height /haɪt/ [countable/uncountable noun]
how tall someone is :
somebody’s height
▪ State your age, height, and weight.
▪ Sally had always been self-conscious about her height.
be the same height
▪ She’s about the same height as I am.
▷ stature /ˈstætʃəʳ/ [uncountable noun] formal
someone’s height, used especially when you are talking about their appearance :
▪ The bank manager was a grey-haired man of imposing stature.
in stature
▪ I was by no means short in stature, but next to this man I felt like a dwarf.
3. to be much taller than someone
▷ tower over/above /ˈtaʊər əʊvəʳ, əbʌv/ [transitive phrasal verb]
▪ When Howard stood up, he towered over his father.
▪ A tall, broad-shouldered, striking figure, he towered above others around him.
▷ dwarf /dwɔːʳf/ [transitive verb usually in passive]
to be so much taller than someone else that you make them seem shorter than they really are :
▪ Rachel was small and slight, and was dwarfed by the other competitors.